www.10000km.fi

July 04, 2014

(Update: The trip mentioned in this post is finished and our adventures can be seen from the blog www.10000km.fi)

As you are reading this, I'm already at the start a trip of a lifetime; Together with Atte Tanner, Anna Valli and Pauliina Kivineva we are going to be traveling through Russia, Mongolia, China and Vietnam by train, from 5th of July to the end of August, with nothing but backpacks and cameras. You can follow our trip from the official blog on www.10000km.fi along with tons of upcoming imagery, of course :)

Read the longer introduction Here.

Destinations:

Russia
1. Moscow
2. Yekaterinburg
3. Krasnoyarsk
4. Irkutsk
Mongolia
1. Ulan Bator
China
1. Beijing
2. Zhangjiajie
3. Guilin
Vietnam
1. Hanoi

Camera Gear

Lenses: 35mm f/1.4

For our trip we got an upgrade to our camera gear by the great Finnish camera retailer Rajala Pro Shop, and I can't thank them enough for providing me with Sigma's new 35mm f/1.4, a perfect tool for almost everything on the trip. All three of us with cameras will be moving forward with this exact lens ready for every moment. I've been using it constantly through June for graduation portraiture work:

135mm f/2

This beast of a lens is mostly meant for special kinds of portraits. Due to it's extremely long focal length and large aperture you can completely isolate the subject from background and create an immersive depth for stunning compressed portraits. But of course, with great attributes come great compositional difficulties. Without the ability to zoom 135mm has a crazy small field of view, so basically your only option in finding the best angle is running around in a 14 meter radius from your subject. But when you do find an angle you just know it's going to be a good one :)

17mm f/4 and 24mm f/3.5 TS

These two are solely for landscape/cityscape purposes. We have a single 24mm Tilt-Shift with us on the journey, and I couldn't be happier. The creative power behind being able to control the depth of field of a very wide angle photo is very interesting and gives a dreamy look when done right.

Other highlights: Blackrapid Original camera strap

iPhone essentials

As most of you probably know, I will also be photographing with my iPhone. For this I have a rugged Optrix case that you can use to photograph underwater no less than 10 meters down, and a very small Gorillapod Griptight tripod.

...In 24 hours we will be on our first stop in Moscow...! Please stay tuned on www.10000km.fi!

New York

June 19, 2014

Last year I visited New York as a part of the new Ford Mustang's m ustanginspires campaign, where Ford invited 15 instagrammers around the world to document the reveal of the new Mustang 2015, and to capture the essence of the revealing cities all over the world. I couldn't believe my ears when they told me my destination would be New York...! For the week I spent there (1 day on the campaign, 5 on leisure) I couldn't stop photographing on every turn. It was also the first trip where I had no company at all with me, so being able to roam free every minute of my stay was something I never expected to be such a great experience.

For the trip I only had one camera and lens, the Olympus OM-D EM5, and 17mm f/1.8 lens (sponsored by Rajala Pro Shop), which was probably the wisest and lightest travel set I have and will ever experience :)

iPhone Photos (Instagram: @skwii)

24mm : f/4.0, 1,3sec, ISO 5000 — 24mm : f/4.0, 1,3sec, ISO 5000

One Magical Weekend

May 28, 2014

The first summer cottage trip of the year was something else. The whole weekend turned into a total art camp with like-minded photographers, Anna Valli and Atte Tanner. All these images are completely improvised without a moment's thought, inspired by the surreal cottage and location in Tenhola, Southern Finland. What's better than creating art on the side of delicious camp fire pancakes and sauna?